sometimes archrival in baseball from back home in new orleans, unfortunately the star of the game too many times, cedric richmond found out which hospital and he was the first one on scene in his baseball uniform to check on me. so many others of you, again, both republican and democrat, reached out in ways i cannot express my gratitude and how much it means to me, jennifer, and our whole family. it really does show the warm side of congress that very few people get to see. >> c-span, powered by cable. >> the house will be in order. >> this year c-span celebrate 45 years of government congress like no other. since 1979 we have been your primary source for capitol hill providing balanced, unfiltered coverage of government taking you to where policy is debated

and decided all with the support of america's cable companies. c-span, 45 years and counting, powered by cable. >> the house oversight committee continued its impeachment inquiry into president biden by hearing testimony from two of hunter biden's former associates. they spoke about their prior interactions with the biden family and alleged connections to chinese and russian business dealings. lev parnas also testified at the request of democrats . he told lawmakers he was tasked by giuliani defined damaging information on joe biden ahead of the 2020 election to help his reelection chances. hunter biden was invited to testify, but did not appear at the hearing.

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[inaudible conversations] >> the command oversight and accountability will come to order. i want to welcome everyone here this morning. without objection the chair may declare a racist at any >> the committee on oversight will come to order. welcome here this morning. without objection, the chairman declared a recess at any time. without objection, mr. jason smith of missouri, representative matt gates of florida and representative eric swalwell from california are

waived under the committee for the purpose of questioning the witnesses and today's committee hearing. for today's hearing opening statements will be limited to 10 minutes for the chair and 10 minutes for the ranking member. the chair also notes that point to border pertaining to the engaging of personalities against the president will not be in order for the duration of today's hearing. given that this is a hearing regarding this committees impeachment inquiry members must be allowed to speak frankly. the chair now recognizes himself for an opening statement. today, the house committee on oversight will hear from witnesses who have previously provided information during our deposition and interview phase regarding the biden family business practices in china, ukraine, russia and other places around the world. at the start of this congress the oversight committee investigated what product or service the biden family and their associates were selling that would justify over $24

million in payments. we have reviewed emails, bank records, text messages, suspicious activity reports and treasury and other evidence normally compiled during an expansive investigation such as this. the oversight committee found no credible evidence of the bidens providing any work product. the committee identified no legitimate value or document or even one single hour of work the bidens have provided their business partners. nothing. what is apparent after over a year of investigation is the bidens did not work in any traditional sense of the word. they didn't work as consultants, lawyers, advisers. they don't sell a product or service or set of skills.

the bidens sell joe biden. that is their business. for months we have heard democrats desperately proclaiming witnesses have told this committee joe biden had no involvement in his family's business dealing. where are those witnesses today? it's telling democrats haven't invited one of these witnesses to today's hearing. that's because they know their testimonies would not withstand public scrutiny. democrats have relied on these witnesses opening statements and have willfully turned a blind eye to the facts that have come in these interviews once the witnesses were questioned about our record of evidence. democrats now must rely on bring it in a distraction witness to talk about nonsense and who can't talk about any of the facts brought by today's witnesses, who worked with the bidens? president biden cannot control his adult son, brother, sister-

in-law or his nine family members who received money from these transactions. all president biden can do is control his own actions. that's what we are here today to discuss with the witnesses. because in the course of this investigation, we have learned that joe biden has taken action after action to further his family's plans to get rich. he shows up to meetings, gets on phone calls, shakes hands and tells people to look after my family. he goes to dinners with foreign oligarchs and the ukrainian executive paying his son millions of dollars. he gets paid with money from chinese businessmen who he has meetings with and tells other associates he will see what he can do to help. he writes letters of recommendation for foreign business associates children. the scam is simple. the biden family promises they

can make a foreign partners problems go away by engaging the u.s. government. the problems can be anything, ukrainian corruption investigation, moving russian money, romanian criminal prosecution, access for china to american energy sources. joe shows up, shakes hands in front of his son and says take care of my boy or something similar. the money flows. to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. it's done over and over again. the biden family promises joe's power, joe biden shows up and millions of dollars come into the pockets. joe biden is the families closer. how could he not be? the bidens are not doing any other work for these companies that would warrant tens of millions of dollars. there are only two explanations. first is joe biden knows exactly what he is doing and knows a handshake, wink and smile is enough to maintain his

plausible deniability or joe biden is being led around by his family and has no idea who he's meeting with her what message he is sending and is truly an elderly man with a poor memory. there is no other explanation. either joe biden is complicit or joe biden is incompetent. since becoming chairman of the committee in january 2023 i promised the investigation into the family's influence peddling would be based on bank records, witness testimony and verifiable facts. after years of democrats using this committee for every conspiracy theory they could find like the russian collusion hopes, under my leadership the committee returned to real investigations. if democrats want to spend another russian hoax i will ask one question. what services did the bidens provide to earn them and their business associates over $24 million? what did they do? democrats have the same bank

records as we do and bank records do not lie. the witnesses today are here to talk about joe biden, republicans are here. if democrats wish to spend their time clowning themselves with another collusion for the sake of protecting president biden they can do so. i would've invited hunter biden to sit alongside his associates to provide his side of the story. hunter biden demanded a public hearing. i've given him one. maybe he will show up, he said he isn't but he loves saying one thing and doing another. at some point, it begins to reflect poorly on his ability to tell the truth at all. this hearing is not about hunter biden. this investigation is not about him, it's about joe biden and the lies he continues to tell the american people. with that i yield to chairman smith. >> thank you. from the beginning of this investigation we have made

clear that we will follow the facts wherever they lead. the facts have led us to two conclusions. one, the biden family has for years traded on joe biden's name in order to rank in millions of dollars. often doing so with his direct knowledge and clear involvement. president biden has been continually dishonest with the american people about the knowledge of his families and business dealings. we have testimony from multiple witnesses that joe biden was the brand. he knew what his son and brother were doing and did nothing to stop it. that alone makes him complicit in a scheme to make money off of his public service. he was not just complicit, he was as one of today's witnesses testified an enabler of this activity. the evidence of the two irs whistleblowers who came to the committee has been affirmed by

volumes of material provided to congress by the testimony of others and even by the department of justice who finally brought charges against hunter biden that mirror those called for by the irs investigators. the evidence obtained shows that when joe biden met with his son's business partners on multiple occasions. he used an alias to exchange dozens of emails with his sons bookkeeper. he took official government action that suspiciously coincided with those meetings and correspondence. the connections between joe biden and his son's business practices extended even to the biden 2020 campaign. at the height of the democratic primary kevin morris, a hollywood lawyer, met hunter biden at a joe biden campaign fundraiser paid off. hunter biden's tax liabilities there was in his words "risk personally and politically if

that matter was not swept under the rug. investigators that were interested in pursuing a potential criminal campaign violation were told to stand down. the biden family relied on the biden brand so much that evidence has revealed hunter biden believed that all this stuff meeting his legal troubles would all go away when his dad became president. why did he believe that? for years the family has personally benefited from joe biden's position of power. joe biden new this, did nothing to stop it and he lied about it. i yield to jim jordan, chairman jordan. >> who planted the pipe bombs on january 6? nobody seems to know. who leaked the dobbs draft opinion? the leak that led to an assassination attempt on justice capital. who left cocaine at the white house?

the biden administration doesn't have time to answer these questions, they are too busy investigating parent at school board meetings, labeling catholics extremists, retaliating against whistleblowers. they are too busy putting together a deal for hunter biden. a deal that got laughed out of court. the guy who put together the deal that got laughed out of court is the guy they name special counsel. you know what democrats have time for? going after president trump. they've been doing it for eight years. they spied on his campaign, then it was the molar investigation, $30 million and found nothing then it was impeachment, then it was a special counsel then it was the 14th amendment. the party of democracy said we will keep the guy off the ballot leading in every single pole. the ranking member said president trump should be disqualified from even running for office, thank goodness we have a supreme court who

disagreed with the ranking member and democrats. 9-0. not 5-4, not 7-2. 9-0 they disagree. now democrats say how dare republicans investigate joe biden? how dare they look into the money, the business and the brand? millions of dollars as the chairman said from foreign entities run through 20 different companies for what? 20 different companies. devon archer told us what it was for. access to the brand. the brand was joe biden. attended lunches and dinners with hunter biden and his business partners, the brand that said -- conditioned $1 billion of american tax money on the firing of the prosecutor

pressuring the company hunter biden sat on the board of. by the way was getting paid 1 million bucks a year. today we learn more about the brand, or about what stark alanis called the biden lift. the possible deniability that jim biden talked to mr. bob linsky about and the statement, the ruble that govern how the business operated around joe biden. the rule that said say it, forget it, write it, regret it. i want to thank our witnesses for coming today. they like the whistleblowers who came to the committee are doing it simply because they want the american people to have the truth. i yield back. >> the chair recognizes the ranking member for 12 minutes for his opening segment. >> thank you very kindly. with any luck today marks the end of perhaps the most spectacular failure in the

history of congressional investigations. the effort to find a high crime or misdemeanor committed by joe biden and to impeach him for it. in prior hilarious episodes of this long-running madcap series america got to see the following, nearly 20 witnesses who cannot identify a single act of wrongdoing by president biden much less a high crime misdemeanor and who overwhelmingly testified that biden was not involved in any of his family's business adventures. three expert witnesses called by the majority itself who said nothing that they had seen in the tens of thousands of pages of documents introduced by the majority even remotely approach the level of a high crime misdemeanor. bank records show exactly what all the witnesses told us. joe biden was not involved in his family members businesses. repeated displays of pornographic images by the majority completely irrelevant

to any conceivable legislative or investigative purpose, a star witness that turned out to be a chinese agent in an illegal arms trafficker on the run from american justice and the key piece of evidence which launched the entire goose chase and fd 1023 form in which the fbi duly recorded a completely fictional tip about a $5 million bribe to vice president biden pedaled by alex smirnoff who has been criminally indicted by a trump appointed u.s. attorney, special counsel david weiss, for felony counts of systematically lying to the fbi and constructing a false record about joe biden and now sits in jail in california as a flight risk while the world studies his long-standing and extensive ties to russian intelligence. today, the good chairman and

his ace detectives have finally jumped the shark. the comedy of errors comes crashing to an end as house republicans and more than a dozen biden districts beg for mercy and the committee throws a hail mary pass three weeks after the super bowl is over. today we revisit the fruitless testimony of two more star witnesses who failed to testify to any residential ongoing, much less evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors. both are frustrated and would be business partners of hunter biden who tried to leverage the name with a brand as they keep calling it. they never got any business off the ground for reasons that will become painfully obvious to anyone watching the proceedings today. even hunter biden laboring under a substance abuse addiction could tell these were not the type of people he should be doing business with

so rather than representing the biden brand which was their ardent wish they now show up today as loyal servants of trump , each of them proudly represented by their very own former trump white house attorney. the first is mr. bob linsky, the wannabe business partner who is famously including unsuccessfully suing his own dying fathers charity for nearly $1 million. just last month suing cassidy hutchinson for $10 million after she reported that mr. bob linsky wearing a ski mask met with mark meadows with actual documentary photographic evidence, something in very short supply in this investigation. he made his hazy allegations against the biden's public for the first time at a press conference choreographed by the trumpet for president campaign which provided him a venue, journalists and a dress shirt

they went out and bought for him to wear to the event. hours later mr. bob linsky joined the second 2020 presidential debate as donald trump's personal guest where he was seated with kid rock and mark meadows. the other witness who i believe is appearing by zoom today is a serial fraudster and convicted con man. a term i would not use on a witness except it was explicitly bestowed upon him by not one but two different u.s. federal court judges including the one who sensed him to over 15 years in prison for defrauding union pension funds, and native american tribe and scores of innocent investors. he was sentenced to play restitution of over $80 million to his victims. that's what donald trump was sentenced to pay in that litigation. the very first record of the

claims against the biden family appear in the clemency position that he sent from prison to president trump. the key point is this, even if we believe every single word offered by these utterly compromised and biased witnesses there allegations don't identify any wrongdoing, much less an impeachable offense by president biden. with the impeachment bus running on empty our gl colleagues now are apparently preparing to save face by ending the impeachment with criminal referrals. criminal referrals require evidence of crimes. the only crime we have seen are those at the gop's own star witnesses like russian asset alex smirnoff, chinese agent,

devon archer and jason galanis. the minority witness today, our witness cassis a piercing light on what is really taking place here. mr. partners has reason to know he used to be peddling lies and disinformation to smear joe biden. today he joins a long line of self exiles from trump world who could no longer stomach all the corruption and deceit. people like cassidy hutchinson, michael:, sarah matthews, alyssa griffin, general james mattis, mark millie, general john kelly and now vice president mike pence who refuses to endorse for president the man he served with. when did i look forward to hearing their testimony about how they got sunk into this religious cult.

mr. parnassus wrote a remarkable letter on july 23rd 2023. this is the first time i meeting him today. he was rudy giuliani's right- hand man. his globetrotting business partner and language interpreter in the mission to manufacture their and smears against joe biden in 2018 and 2019. he spent his time traveling around the world trying to stage evidence against joe biden. parnas explains the desperate search for evidence of any kind of corruption was a complete and total bust because there's no evidence. not only was there no evidence in ukraine that joe biden did anything improper but more darkly the manic search for a smoking gun

against biden became a mission to concoct evidence out of thin air with the active help of russian intelligence assets and agents. you haven't heard anything yet. a man who has reckoned with his own moral descent into trump world left parana's is ashamed of what he did to serve the interest of russian propaganda and britain's lies. he wants america to know the truth. he can explain how the russian simulated conspiracy theory and lies he promoted with rudy giuliani live on in the tires and fabric spread by alex smirnoff and never repeated by this committee like pavlov's dog. at every turn, my colleagues cry russia hopes even in the face of repeated warnings from

donald trump's own treasury secretary and secretary of state from the intelligence community, robert mueller and most recently special counsel weiss who was named by donald trump. russian disinformation campaigns, targeting american citizens are a threat to our democracy. that is someone you guys usually defend, but my gop colleagues continue to cry russia hoax like cult members selling flowers at the airport. our colleagues are the ones loyally amplifying the actual russian hoax. the one that giuliani and trump and smirnoff have eagerly adopted from patent and his agents. they participate in this hoax while they shamefully block $60 billion in military assistance to president zelensky and the ukrainian people five years after trump and giuliani try to shake president zelensky down

for counterfeit dirt on joe biden. while they continue to parent these russian lies light american wages is bloody aggressive war on ukraine filled with atrocities like the mass kidnapping of children and the slaughter of civilians. the maga writes wholesale adoption of this russian hoax and their sellout of the ukrainian people by them is democracy and freedom and the rule of law but the defense of democracy begins with fidelity and the oversight democrats, america's truth squad against this disinformation is here today to set the record straight . i yelled back to you mr. chairman. >> i would like to introduce our witnesses. mr. tony bob linsky. a business partner of hunter biden and chinese energy entity.

he set for a transcribed interview with the committee on february 13th 2024. mr. lev parnas was not a business associate of the family. mr. partners is an entrepreneur and an author. and mr. jason galanis. a business partner of hunter biden. mr. gallant us sat for an interview with this committee. we ask the bureau of prison to make them available in person today. they would only provide mr. galanis for virtual testimony. notably he applied for c.a.r.e.s. act, home confinement and after and lengthy approval process was approved for home confinement on june 9th 2023. on june 12th i issued a subpoena for testimony. all the following day june 13th 2023 mr. galanis's approval was reversed as a result of department of justice's

intervention. mr. galanis has remained in a federal prison facility and is in montgomery, alabama. can you please state who else is in the room with you? >> yes. my counsel and adviser and nicholas weiss. >> pursuant to committee will 9g the witnesses will please stand and raise the right hand. do you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give is the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god? let the record show the witnesses all answered in the affirmative. you all may be seated. we appreciate you being here today and look forward to your testimony. let me remind the witnesses that we have read your written statements and they will appear in full in the hearing record.

please limit your statements to five minutes. please press the button on the microphone in front of you so it is on and members can hear you. when you begin to speak the light will turn green and after four minutes it will turn yellow and when the red light comes on your five minutes expired and we ask you please wrap it up as quickly as possible. i now recognize mr. bob linsky for his opening statement. >> should i allow hunter to give his opening statement first? >> it doesn't appear he showed up so we recognize you. >> thank you. good morning. thank you for this opportunity to speak with you and present my truthful testimony to the american people. i sit here today under oath for one reason, the american people deserve to hear the truth. though the truth involving the deep corruption of the biden family including the sitting president in the united states might be raw and unpleasant the

american people must hear it. you're presented with two narratives, a false one being pushed by joe biden, a serial liar now under this impeachment investigation for public corruption, a 75-year-old man who can't keep his lies straight including under oath and his son, a chronic drug addict facing two indictments. you also have the truth confirmed by multiple biden partners over many years and backed up by mountains of irrefutable evidence including text messages, emails, documents, recordings. i'm the only business partner with an impeccable record. i'm grateful i'm getting the freedom to be successful. i work hard to be wealthy. i've taken several businesses public. sold multiple businesses to some of the best firms and my business success is why they sought me out. what they have done is

repugnant. i'm here because i'm a patriot and truth teller. we keep hearing from certain corners that our democracy is at risk and democracy is on the ballot yet the same people preaching this mantra know better. they continue to lie directly to the people without hesitation and remorse. dan goldman and jamie raskin both lawyers and a former prosecutor from new york will continue to lie today and go straight to the media to tell more lies. hunter biden's defense attorney weapon eyes as letters to congress to try to smear my name -- >> mr. chairman. >> in an attempt to save -- i challenged to make those claims so he can be held accountable for his lies. prior to my successful business career i was an officer in the united states navy and the elite command.

i later served as the command chief technology officer. >> i apologize for the disruption. >> am i supposed to say it's my time? >> come to order. please proceed. i apologize for the disruption from the minority. >> save his time but he called members of this committee liars and i want to know whether the decorum requirements of house rule 11 apply to witnesses appearing before the committee. does it apply or does it not? >> should i address? >> there's decorum, there is no

language i'm aware of pertaining to a witness. make sure we didn't waste any of his time. i'm sorry for the disruption, please continue your opening statement. we will make sure it is right. >> i want to make sure the american people here all the facts. weapon icing letters to congress to try to spare my name and mistake the cold hard facts in an attempt to save his connected client and father. i challenge mr. lowell to make those claims on national television. prior to my business career i was an officer for over six years in the united states navy's elite nuclear power training command as a dedicated training specialist. i served as a commander chief technology officer where i held huge security clearance from the department of energy and nsa. when i left nuclear power

training i was the number one ranked officer in the command and i jumped into the business world and public markets. while i've made a few contributions over the years to democrats such as representative ro khanna he sits on the democratic side of the committee i'm not a political person. i come from a family with a long history of distinguished service and our nation's military including my father, both grandfathers and brother all of whom were willing to sacrifice their lives for this country. my sister serves our military vets for two decades at the veterans administration, we have lived our life as a family and service to this great country. i hope the american people pay close attention to this hearing. i hope they will understand some members of the committee will engage in absurd attacks and efforts to try to deflect attention from the facts and i will present today by questioning my integrity and

patriotic duty. you may see me speak passionately but for good reason. not only was i willing to die for the country, every single male member of my family was willing to die. i want to be crystal clear, for my direct personal experience and what i've subsequently come to learn it is clear that joe biden was the brand being sold by the family. his foreign influence peddling operation from china to ukraine and elsewhere sold out to foreign actors who are seeking to gain influence and access to joe biden and the united states government. joe biden was a beneficiary of his business. he was an enabler who met with business associates such as myself to further the business despite being buffered by a complex scheme to maintain plausible deniability. i asked this question, if no evidence of corruption here, if his conduct and the conduct of his family were fully weaker

why are they so dishonest about it? not just slight misrepresentations, but deep untruths about the entire corrupt enterprise. hunter biden gave his transcribed interview on fairbury 28th and light throughout his testimony. here's one example of hundreds perjury. he lied to the committee on important details concerning his money demands and threats to cfc in text messages on july 31st 2017. he leveraged his father's presence in that infamous text to strong-arm cfc to paying hunter immediately. jim biden lied throughout his interview on february 21st and perjured himself. an example of that on page 100 of his transcript he's asked specifically do you recall having a meeting with hunter biden, tony bobulinkski and joe biden? absolutely not.

the committee was so shocked by his perjury that they asked him the same question multiple times , each time he denied meeting with me and joe biden. after the committee showed him text messages confirming i met with joe biden, hunter biden and jim biden at the beverly hilton in may 2017 jim biden with a former u.s. attorney lawyer sitting next to him still denied that meeting took place. hunter biden in his own interview confirmed that the meeting took place. hunter confirmed his uncle perjured himself in front of this committee. i am simply here to tell the truth to the american people and i hope each and every one of you give me the opportunity to do that instead of focusing on russia or smearing my family's name or focusing on facts that are irrelevant today. i yelled back.

>> two points, i believe mr. bobulinkski went over. i see we now have a witness appearing remotely and i thought witnesses were required to appear in person under the rules adopted i the majority at the beginning of the congress. do we have a new practice with respect to that rule? i believe members were denied the ability to participate in hearings conducted in florida, mississippi and alabama. we wanted to participate by zoom. >> it requires to be able to testify remotely requires a letter from me and approval from the majority leader which we have. >> thank you. i hope we extend the same courtesy to members of the committee when they can't get to a hearing in mississippi or florida.

>> state your point. >> mr. bob babinski just referred to text messages that i believe he's referring to photos of a blackberry. >> what is your parliamentary inquiry? we've got a very important hearing here and we don't have time for stunts. >> i'm simply asking. >> you don't have an angry, the chair recognizes mr. pardus -- the chair recognizes mr. pardus. >> we don't have times for games. >> we have important witnesses here. >> you asked for a parliamentary inquiry. you will have five minutes when it tells me it is your time to speak. mr. parnas, the chair recognizes you for equal time that mr. bob berlinski had.

>> honorable members of congress , ranking member raskin and members of the oversight committee i'm humbled and thankful before you to show before you today. i came to the united states from ukraine in 1976 when it was still the former soviet union. my mother, father and sister had left the soviet union escaping anti-semitism and persecution. while in rome in route to israel my sister and i have the most important opportunity we've ever been given. we won the u.s. green card lottery. my family came with no more than shirts on our back and hope of rebuilding our life in the land of freedom. i say this because i love this country. shortly after my rest to now. i've been trying to share the irrefutable truth with you. the american people have been lied to by donald trump, rudy giuliani and various cohorts of

individuals in government and media positions. they created falsehoods to serve their interests knowing it would undermine the strength of our nation. from november 2018 to october 2018 i was a key participant and witness to numerous efforts to prove that joe and hunter biden were linked to corruption in ukraine. rudy giuliani on behalf of then- president donald trump test me with the mission to travel the globe so the rate of networks could spread misinformation about them thus securing the 2020 election for donald j trump. when i was arrested my linked -- we now know this individual to be congressman pete sessions who sit on this committee today. i ask you to consider the following, in figure traveling the world and interviewing officials i found precisely 0 evidence of the biting corruption in ukraine.

no credible source has ever provided proof of criminal activity. fbi, cia or nsa. no respectable ukrainian official has said biden did anything illegal including former president and former prosecutor. even when the ceo was offered a deal by rudy giuliani in exchange for information on the bidens he provided none. there is none. the only information pushed on the bidens in ukraine came from one source and one source only. russia and russian agents. the proceedings may bring us are predicated false information spread by the kremlin. everyone involved knew the lies from trump and giuliani through my missions to ukraine and elsewhere, to members of a team a group convened for the sole purpose of investigating and damaging the bidens.

it was for the benefit of donald trump and thereby vladimir putin. because investigations were centered around ukraine i was designated the person in every matter they proceed. that is how i know with certainty these stories are untrue then and are untrue now. congressman pete sessions then congressman devon nunez and many others understood they were pushing a false narrative. the same goes for john solomon, sean hannity and media personal at fox news who use this to manipulate the public ahead of the elections. sadly they are still doing this today as we approach the 2024 elections. we cannot separate this conspiracy from the russia ukraine war because trump has no intention to keep eating ukraine. without the support of the united states and nato millions will suffer and die.

if we allow russia to defeat ukraine that suffering will reach american shores. today, i admit my own wrongdoings, i've been a convicted federal election campaign and fraud crimes and served my sentence. i will not hide that from reality, it's part of my truth. despite rigorous attempts by those in power to silence me i will be silenced no longer. take you to the committee for allowing me to speak i look forward to answering any and all of your questions. >> the chair recognizes mr. galanis. >> my name is jason galanis. during the years 2014-15 our business included the acquisition of 85-year-old wall street firm the 1 1/2 billion dollar surviving division. our objective was to build and

diverse platform anchored by the wall street brand together with a political name, biden. our goal is hunter, devon archer and me was to make millions. the business was the family name and access to his father, vice president joe biden. in 2014 we believed the burden enterprise would be significantly enhanced by forming partnership with harvest fund management, a $300 billion chinese financial service company closely connected with the communist party. this effort was led by hunter biden's contract of henry zhao. he was interested in this partnership because of the game changing of the biden family including joe biden who was to be a member of the harvest theme folks ice presidency. byler provided email august 23rd

drafted for hunter biden that reflects the understanding and states michael, he's also remind henry zhao of our conversation for a certain relation of mine. we golfed with that relation earlier this week and discussed this very idea. as always, he remains very keen on the opportunity. i'm certain that this phrase refers to vice president biden. devon told me about this conversation shortly after it happened. ultimately, with hunter will of them on business deals say it, forget it, write it, regret it. i recall being with hunter biden and devon archer at the peninsula bar in new york where hunter took a tall from his father and told him things were going well with henry zhao and he might need a little help

getting across the finish line. it was not the only time i've heard hunter speak with his father for business. it was may 4 2014 on the cell phone, put it on speaker mode to have him say hello. the former mayor of moscow. devon archer was also there. hunter said i'm here with our friends. i told you were coming to town and we wanted to say hello. the vice president said hello, pleasantries and hope you had safe bridles and said you be good to my boy. hunter responded saying everything is good and we are moving ahead. the vice president said something about being helpful and hunter ended the call by saying he was going to call his father later. before this call hunter sat at the table and i heard them speaking generally, a few days after this party and email

myler provided shows that devon had confirmed committed to a $10-$20 million in a burden. in an effort to build this financial platform eyeing gauged in unlawful conduct, companies were entrusted with $11 million of union pension money whose trust i betrayed. i pleaded guilty, i've had eight years in federal custody to reflect on my actions. i'm sorry for committing these crimes, i deserve the sentence i received. as i said fully my full statement i believe the prosecutors did not indict hunter biden on the same deal for political reasons despite then available documentation that we were partners, involved in decision-making that involved illegal self-dealing and if all of us had financially benefited from these games. hunter biden and devon archer's company received $15 million

from the fraudulent scheme to be investigated. i offer this information about hunter biden's crimes but the prosecutors have been uninterested. i filed the doj december 2022 providing information about the culpability. they retaliated against me and -- i applied for home confinement on fairbury fourth 2023 and was approved on june 9th. on june 12 the committee issued a subpoena for devon archer and the dop reversed my approval on june 13th with asking why they objected to my release. with each stage the reason for my denial has changed. during the period beginning i was sexually assaulted by a member of prison staff at pensacola.

he sexually harassed me for many months thereafter. i hope to receive home confinement which would remove me from danger. my judgment was clouded by the shame i felt. i was well aware i believe my disclosure would make things first for me. unfortunately the harassment continued until early august when the correctional officer's comments became more threatening. i feared for my safety and decided to seek counseling the next day on august 10th 2023. he asked to bring in orton salisbury investigation which is a reference to the prison illumination act and after further debriefings i was immediately escorted to a vehicle and driven by senior staff hours to fpc montgomery,

a separate facility. i'm grateful the committee opened an investigation in these matters and i appreciate chairman jordan and subcommittee chairmen bank signing the letter. i've been a victim of retribution, i believe in putting myself at great risk within the bop for providing information on these matters concerning the president and his son. i've been treated professionally at montgomery and i want to thank anthony barnes for the help in facilitating access prior to this interview. >> thank you. i want to thank all the witnesses again for being here today. we will now begin the questions. i want to remind members on both sides of the aisle each member has five minutes. i will adhere to that and hit the gavel if the question has been asked we will allow the

witnesses time to respond but we will try to get in a lot of questions from a lot of members and i will begin the questioning followed by ranking member raskin's. again, thank you for your service to our country, we appreciate you being here. during the congress this committee investigated joe biden's involvement and his family's influence peddling schemes around the world. was joe biden involved with any of your business dealings with hunter biden and james fighting? was joe biden involved in his family's attempts to sell their access to him? you sent out a form for a legitimate business with the bidens. did you come to find out the biden family had no interest in doing real business? >> i did. >> are you aware of any times

hunter biden used joe biden with joe biden's knowledge to benefit their business associates? >> yes. >> which associates? >> a russian oligarch. russian, chinese fund manager henry zhao and ukrainian oligarch. >> now that we established joe biden was involved in his family's business dealings i would like to turn to the financial records. one major point my colleagues downplayed is how much money the bidens accumulated from pouring business ventures in such a short period of time. we have over $24 million to the biden family and their business associates from 2014 to 2019. there came a time when you are attempting to raise $10 million

from the chinese to pursue an actual real business deal. it would it be correct to say this was a $10 million deal. what did the bidens conceive of the business with the chinese becoming? >> they were committing to deploy billions of dollars in infrastructure projects here in the united states as well as around the world. >> mr. galanis, what was the financial goal you set out to achieve? millions or billions? billions with a b. i would like to turn to some statements joe biden has made during his presidency about the findings. mr. bobulinkski, he said he never interacted with his family's business associates. did he meet with you? >> he did. >> multiple times. several.

>> are you aware joe biden also met with rob walker and devon archer? >> generally aware. >> as you discussed earlier regarding the russian oligarch you were present for hunter biden calling his then vice president father with the russian oligarch. >> that is correct. >> you were also present for hunter biden's conversation with his father about a board seat on a chinese company board, is that correct? >> yes. >> isn't it true that joe biden said he didn't interact with his family's business associates , that's not true is it? >> i believe it will be misleading to the point of being a non-truth. >> i want to touch on the fact

of the absence. hunter biden has chosen not to attend proceedings. i've given him exactly what he asked for before his deposition. it's clear he knows his testimony would not withstand public scrutiny. joe biden has not been truthful about his participation and schemes to sell access and influence. today's witnesses will show the people a sign of the story that the president and his allies on the side or eagle to hide. mr. bobulinkski, can you tell us about your meeting at the hilton? >> short or long? >> within a minute. >> hunter biden, jim biden and joe biden were in los angeles for business discussions, joe was there to speak at the conference in may 2017. i had lunch with hunter biden and he asked me to meet with his father that night. he set

up a meeting at the beverly hilton where they hold the conference and i got there early and sat with jim biden, hunter biden and we were talking about what we were doing with the chinese and legal documents i was working there. they coached me before joe showed up and said we will keep things at a high level and not go into details. i remember the discussion because it struck me as odd. joe was not in the white house. they were sort of framing it that way and joe showed up and walked through the lobby of the hilton hotel, i stood up to shake his hand and we sat down and spent 45 minutes to an hour going through my background. >> that long? >> this was not a handshake. this was -- we talked about a lot of stuff.

>> the chair recognizes raskin for his questions. >> we will go to mr. garcia. >> for the record i want to be clear that in the testimony he provided zero evidence of any sort of length between hunter biden and the president as far as it relates to the business. we are back to a hearing where new evidence is provided of any wrongdoing by the president but i want to go back -- it's my time. i want to go back to the private deposition. i was a handful of democrats in that on the record under oath conversation we had. during that i asked a question of which he gave a false answer and i want to go back. i asked you who got you into the presidential debate that was attended by you and others and that was a huge moment in that campaign and you could not

recall. you said i do not recall who got me into the debate. do you remember telling me that? >> your plane semantics as if somebody called me directly and gave me a ticket -- >> i will reclaim my time. what i said was -- and reclaiming my time. when i asked was you recall who got you into the presidential debate? i do not recall who got me in, you did not remember who got you in between president biden joe biden and donald trump. you quoted i don't recall who got me into the debate on page 102 of the transcript. thank you. i reclaim my time. thank you. here as is shown, we know you were in the debate sitting adjacent and next to trump officials.

when confronted again on the same question mr. bobulinkski if you were a guest at the debate you responded and you quoted what the wall street journal all you out is the wall street journal god or something like you act like this is an ink like a pdf of fact and you refuse to still confirm you were a guest. i want to ask, were you a guest of donald trump at the presidential debate? >> those were not the questions you asked in my transcribed interview. >> answer the question. >> it was obvious to everyone in the world. you're asking me semantics. >> you answered because at the time you said in the transcript under oath i don't recall who got me in. i want to keep going. you call yourself not a political person get you went to a presidential debate on behalf of donald trump. i want to make it clear that you made numerous claims and

allegations today and before. even though you are not a political person this is another photo of you. you chose to show up at a press conference for donald trump prior to the debate because you're not a political person. did you show up for donald trump before the debate? >> i can't qualify whether it was for donald trump. >> who invited you to the debate? who invited you to the press conference? >> my lawyer is coordinated things and i showed up. >> it was jason miller. it's been very clear and reported who worked on part of the campaign. here you are, a press conference. you can't remember how you got to the press conference, you refuse to answer how you got to the debate with joe biden, remember speaking at the press conference? >> very clearly.

>> do you know who jason miller is? >> i know of him. >> he was a trump campaign staffer. >> you ask semantic. i had three lawyers around me that were coordinating my travel, where i was going -- >> thank you. it's interesting because you show up to a pre-debate press conference, presidential debate both invited to by a person running for the presidency of the united states, you know the stakes are high, you have no idea how you got to the press conference, you don't remember how you got to the debate and who you are speaking at a press conference of which the national media -- how did you get to this conference? who invited you? who invited you to the press conference? probably -- >> i reclaim my time. i think it is clear for someone who can't remember how he got to be donald trump press conference

or debate, you are in on credible witness. thank you and i yield back. >> the chair recognizes the chairman of the house ways and means committee, jason smith, for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. we've previously heard from two irs whistleblowers that joe biden was the brand being sold by family members. one such example of this could be seen in a june 6th, 2017 whatsapp message where hunter biden told a business associate that he was not willing to, quote, sign over my families brand, unquote. or give them, quote, the keys to my family is only asset. can you confirm that president biden is the brand being sold by his family members? >> [inaudible] >> thank you. during his deposition, hunter biden repeatedly testified under

oath that his father was not involved in his business in any capacity and that there wasn't even a connection between his father and businesses. here is just one example. quote, i stayed for the record one more time under oath and under penalty of perjury, my father has never been involved in my business. i have never asked my father to be involved in my business. my father has never benefited from my business, and i've never asked anyone or my father to do anything for the benefit of anyone i've ever done business for unquote. yes them ways and means committee released a whatsapp message provided by the irs whistleblowers showing that hunter biden wrote on july 30th, i'm sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not

been fulfilled. i'm sitting here waiting for the call with my father. moreover, you testified that hunter was not shy about the ability to get his father on the phone. devon archer testified that there were multiple instances in which hunter placed his dad on speakerphone. was hunter biden telling the truth when he testified under oath that his father was never involved in any of his business dealings? >> no he's not, those are blatant lies. >> we continue to hear claims that president biden was not involved in his family his business dealings and that he did not benefit from illicit business deals. however, irs special agent joe zigler provided documents to the ways and means committee 327 e-mails, many of which involved hunter biden and hunter biden's business associates.

do you have any personal experience that leads you to believe that joe biden was involved with hunter biden's business associates and business dealings? >> yes, i do. >> you want to say a few? >> to outline how joe was invoked? >> yes. >> different congressmen and women keep trying to say that there is no evidence and use the word "involved." if joe biden was not involved in his son's business dealings, why after flying all the way across the country to the conference, where there is next to davo's the biggest conference in the world, why would he take 45 minutes out of his night flex it wasn't a 10 a.m. meeting. it was 10:40 in the evening. he's an elderly man. flew across the country to sit with me 45 minutes to an hour to discuss my background, the

business we are doing with the chinese, his family background. >> speaking of the business with the chinese, in october 2020, joe biden asserted that his family hadn't earned money through business dealings in china however whistleblowers shared evidence that the biden family made at least 1.1 million from their business with china including $100,000 in payments from cfc, china energy and a one million-dollar payment in exchange for legal services that were never provided to an official. do you know whether the biden family made any money from china? >> they did. millions of dollars i think approximately eight to 9 million. >> the biden family has made millions from china, correct? you said at least 9 million? >> i think it is over 10 million and i will leave the details up to you guys. >> the gentleman yields back and recognizes the ranking member. >> thank you mr. chairman for

being here today. your involvement with the real russian hoax about joe biden began in 2018 when as a big donor and supporter, donald trump's you were introduced to rudy giuliani and began working to dig up dirt on joe biden in ukraine. if you could tell us how quickly you got involved in that? >> yes, i was a donor at the time. i began doing business with giuliani he got involved in the business and the minute we started spending time together until november of 2018, he approached me and asked me about my connections. after telling him about people, add to that point he wanted me to go to ukraine to find the prosecutor general. >> and basically he wanted to go from his fraud guaranteed to guaranteeing of fraud on the

american people. but after turning over every stone and going after every rabbit hole including interviewing victor, did you ever find the smoking gun or any evidence that donald trump was looking for paste on joe biden? >> on the contrary, representative. not only do we keep hitting that wall and not finding the smoking gun but we kept running it to sources of information coming out of russia. >> in fact joe biden was part of a global campaign including by the united states to oppose corruption and go after the corrupt forces in ukraine, is that right? >> yes sir. >> at what point to dig up became spreading disinformation and flies? >> at some point when we hit a few brick walls, all of a sudden then i saw the shift between the group that included john solomon, the media personality

and other trump lawyers to start trying to push narratives that we have no way to validate them basically a letter would come over from somebody in ukraine and handed it over to john solomon. he was on fox two hours later with sean hannity. >> at what point did he begin working directly with russian agents and russian assets, individuals who would later become sanctioned by donald trump's own treasury department for spreading propaganda disinformation against joe biden? >> sometime around may or june around 2019. >> were you aware that these people were basically doing the bidding of vladimir putin? >> absolutely. >> he had no hesitation about spreading lies that were concocted by russian agent is? >> as long as it fit the

narrative, absolutely not. >> how were you and giuliani able to take these false allegations peddled by corrupt officials and russian agents and promote and amplify them here in the united states in our political system? were in the media groups skeptical of your claims? >> most i would say except for fox and a few other right-wing media groups didn't want to take any of the information, and that aggravated rudy giuliani and john solomon and other players. the main group that was being pushed through was sean hannity and some other media personalities. but there were other people doing the bidding like senator ron johnson, pete sessions with me from the very beginning of this journey. >> is putin's war on ukraine today which has cost hundreds of thousands of people's lives, is that part of the hoax?

>> absolutely not. >> is it real? >> absolutely. i want to ask a personal question if i might because if i might, living through this extraordinary period of history, i tried to ask people like michael cohen and hutchison, i wondered about people like general millie, general kelly why did you break with all of the corruption and lies of donald trump? how did you get out of that culture? >> it was very difficult. i had to get arrested to get out of it because when you are in that cold, your around them and have blinders on and see a certain amount, able to hear the certain amount of information and you are not allowed to go out of the circle and if you go outside of the circle then you are not in the circle, so eventually you brainwash yourself to believe certain

things that are not true to understand what was going on i started realizing going back to moments in time where i started thinking to myself this can't be true and we are doing something wrong. >> thank you for helping america to end this nightmare. the chair recognizes the chairman of the house judiciary committee jim jordan. >> the ranking member just said that joe biden was opposed to corruption. so opposed he leveraged a billion dollars of american tax money to fire the prosecutor in ukraine who was investigating the company hunter biden sat on the border. the prosecutor that replaced and represented in his opening statement, guess what he did? he took him off the wanted list and dropped the charges. he's really opposed to corruption. who is the big guy?

are you sure about that? >> i'm a thousand% sure because when he did his deposition he said i don't know who did it, even though he was copied on an e-mail that said they will hold 10% for the big guy. there's other text messages that back that up that have been produced. they took them from subpoenas directly from the icloud that back up the fact that hunter knew. >> the brand, the one who showed up who took phone calls and meetings and lunges and with his business associates. >> you referenced in your opening statement may 4th, 2014 you were at a party at a restaurant in new york. can you tell me who else was

there? >> there were more than a hundred people there [inaudible] i think you referenced a phone call that took place. tell the committee what happened with that phone call, who was involved with of the phone call? >> there was myself, hunter and initiating it -- and he called his father the president is that accurate? >> tell me what was discussed on the call.

>> [inaudible] talked about being good to his boy did you get the impression joe biden was expecting the call? >> it was an arranged call. >> this was coordinated. he calls his father then vice president and i think in your deposition you think he said this, i'm here with our friends that i told you were coming to town. so it's our friends and i told you this was going to happen would suggest that it was most definitely coordinated.

>> a russian billionaire [inaudible] >> she's the wealthiest woman in russia and had already given money to hunter biden and his business before this a business meeting in may and subsequent to that committed to getting more money, is that accurate? so subsequent to the coordinated call, the arranged call with the vice president of the united states, the wealthiest commits to give millions of dollars more to hunter biden's business, is that accurate? >> that is accurate, yes. >> and this was a pull aside at this meeting and you know that it was coordinated. is this what they call access to the brand, access to the biden lift is that what you would describe it as?

>> units followed the motto. >> it follows the statement that you all agreed to say it, forget it, write it, regret it. this was a phone call on a speaker there's no writing about this. it was all done that way. that is how the business operated. is that correct? >> yes. >> i yield back. >> the chair recognizes -- >> i want to make an observation i've been on the committee investigating committee for over 20 years and as an attorney before that, i had sufficient training and experience to say that with high confidence that when you review the entire record of evidence of the hearings going back over the year, you've actually provided more evidence to impeach donald trump for the third time van so

much as laying a glove on president biden. we keep hearing about the biden family. when you hear someone say the biden family, that translates into we had no evidence so we are going to use the biden family to try to implicate president biden. the shifting arguments here you've done nothing more than exonerate president biden. we heard initially for months about the hunter biden laptop, and you know there were absolutely some embarrassing photos on that and some awful information about hunter biden's personal life, i will admit that. then you bring in your own witnesses and legal experts before the committee and have them testify. what they said is amazing. there's no evidence to even

suggest that there was support for articles of impeachment against the president. that was your legal experts, the republican legal experts that said that. then we have statements by mr. jordan saying that mr. smirnov was the most corroborating witnessed that the republicans hand, the strongest witness they have and of course after that, we find out through the trump appointed prosecutor that all of the information provided was fabricated, false and submitted by the inducement of russian agent is going after president biden and trying to undermine our democratic system.

now we come to a point where since that witness blew up, now we are going to prison, and we are reaching out to witnesses who have been convicted and sentenced to prison for stealing $80 million from the pensions of innocent workers. we can't get any lower at this point. that's the star witness. i want to remind people he's sitting in prison. that's why he can't be here today. he's sitting in prison for scamming workers pensions. i mean,, how low can you get, then it's the republicans idea that this is the best guy they can get to testify. this is the best they can get.

you talked about your own direct involvement and said your mission was to dig up dirt on president biden. can you talk to us about the coordination between yourself and mr. giuliani? thank you for being here. >> thank you, congressman. >> i was his right hand and basically the point person to not only dig up and validate and search whatever needs to be done to try to some corruption against joe or hunter biden to be able to present. once i would receive whatever information i received i would then meet with him, john solomon and other members of the team to discuss what we found. add to that point, he would then go to the white house and to

share with the president and that was the line of communication. >> you said also in your testimony that members of the committee and the republican leadership should have known before smirnov was invited that this information was fabricated. can you talk about that? >> not that they should have known but they would have known what was going on. it was anywhere from left and right field and being pushed straight to the halls without. >> my time is expired. >> before i recognize mr. palmer, i'd like to enter into the record the testimony with the committee on february 13, 2024. it corrects the record of representative garcia who did not provide your entire

testimony. the understanding of who invited you, without objection i would like to enter into the record the entire transcribed interview of tony. >> i would like to enter for the record texts reveal more ties per key witness. >> daily beast. without objection. the chair recognizes mitch palmer for five minutes. >> i have very limited time and i want to get through a lot of information so please answer these questions with a yes or no if you don't mind. you've met joe biden, is that correct? >> correct. in fact you had a meeting is in that correct? one of those times was before the conference in los angeles in may of 2017 is that correct? you provided a great deal of documentations to the committee. i want to show you some messages between you and hunter biden on the screen here in may of 2017 before you first had a meeting

with joe biden. these are messages between you and hunter biden do you recognize these? >> i do. >> at the bottom he wrote not in now until 11. let's me and then meet at ten at the beverly hilton where he's staying. this is president biden's brother, correct? >> correct. >> the next set of messages if you put them on the screen is another business associate of hunter biden's and you, his name is james. do you recognize it? >> i do. >> he writes about to meet hunter, jim and joe at the beverly hilton hotel. joe is now president, joe biden? >> correct. >> this chat between jim biden, joe biden's brother, you write great to meet you and spend some time together. please thank joe over the time it was great to talk. you met with joe biden, hunter biden and jim biden the night before in 2017 is that correct?

>> i did and he perjured himself by trying to deny that. >> that was at the beverly hilton, correct? >> correct. >> you can provide more details around that meaning what was the purpose of the meeting. >> i didn't ask for the meeting so i wish hunter biden was sitting next to me and could under oath describe it but the only reason why i was meeting with joe biden, and of the only reason i was there is because i was the ceo of the enterprise that they were putting together with the chinese company cfc. >> can you give me a little more detail of what was discussed in the meeting? >> before joe biden showed up, hunter and jim biden coached me and asked to sort of outline we wouldn't go into a lot of details so through the 45 to 60 minute meeting i had with joe biden about 10:40 p.m. after he flew across the country we talked about my background, the families military background and

different business ventures, the family i worked with, joe spent time talking about his family, some of the tragedies they lived through and at a high level, hunter actually introduced me to joe because before he came and sat down with us, he said give me five to ten minutes i need to read my father in on it. when you are referencing joe and hunter's father you are referencing joe biden? >> i am. >> of these images, the message you sent you spend more time with joe and jim this morning. it's correct it's president joe biden also saw them last night including hunter. these images show a pretty clear record in may of 2017. hunter biden during his transcribed interview testified the meeting did take place and during the trip he stated he met

with him in the lobby of the hotel and when asked who attended he replied my self but when asked whether the meeting at the beverly hilton between joe biden, jim biden, hunter biden, jim testified absolutely not. the stories don't match up. mr. chairman, jim biden also told the committee that they didn't meet the chinese businessmen. mr. chairman, it appears to me that there are material inconsistencies between the testimony. the witnesses statement appeared to me to be irreconcilable. someone appears to be lying to the committee. the testimony seems to come from jim biden the president's brother. lying in congress is a serious offense. if anyone else has come before the committee and glided to the committee i strongly encourage the committee to pursue criminal

referrals in the department of justice and one last thing i want to ask, have either of you heard for anyone involved or associated with were a partner to the family enterprise corruption investigation? >> i'm sorry. >> anyone being suggested that a pardon might be in order for anyone associated? >> i've not. >> thank you. i yield back. >> a parliamentary inquiry. we have heard for months now the photo with the cracked screen, did the committee have in its possession the data for the phone for which he's allegedly taken these pictures? i think we need the data they keep referring to. we have the images that we have shared with you. i saw the picture but do we have

the underlying text referred to by my friend mr. palmer? >> he previously said he would be happy to turn over his phone. we have pictures of all the text message screenshots we provided with everyone on the committee. he is given obviously once he's selected i wonder whether we could get all of the texts and i would move the committee to subpoena the phone on which messages with hunter biden and the partners were saved. he stated that he's ready to provide so it should be rather simple. >> there's a motion to subpoena. >> with of the text referenced. the chair recognizes mr. jordan.

there is a motion to table. >> the motion to table is not debatable. tabling may signify by saying i. although supposed signify. in the opinion of the chair, the motion of the table -- >> what we are doing is tabling evidence you keep relying on so i'm going to ask for the recorded vote. a recorded vote is ordered. we will suspend for a moment. we don't have the clerk. will somebody go find the clerk?

did he say under oath? >> mr. speaker? mr. minority leader, do you think it is possible the witness would voluntarily just give it? i understood that he volunteered when he was asked about this to simplify things if you would turn it over with a blackberry. >> he did very clearly say that he's happy to turn over the blackberry to the committee. we asked britt of the deposition and asked the majority -- >> you are out of order. in suspension waiting for the clerk to come so we can take the vote that your side of the aisle requested. >> mr. ranking member?

i want to underscore the importance -- and sorry the gentlelady is out of order. you can talk with him back here if you want. mr. chairman, mr. chairman? we don't even have --

>> [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> mr. chairman, an invitation to regular order we have democratic groups that are faithful to the rule of law and if you are waiting for a clerk we will be here to watch and document the work.

if you want to conduct with the democratic clerks, we can do it. a recorded vote is ordered. the clerk will call the role.

[roll call] [roll call]

[roll call]

[roll call] [roll call] i vote yes. >> mr. charan votes yes.

ms. is not recorded. >> how is mr. turner recorded? >> mr. turner is not recorded. mr. turner votes aye. mr. frost is not recorded. >> mr. frost votes no. how is mr. fallon recorded? >> mr. fallon is not recorded. mr. fallon votes aye. >> how is ms. porter recorded? >> not recorded. no, ms. porter votes no. will the clerk tally the report?

>> mr. chairman, on this vote, thus aye or 21 and the nays are 16. >> in your deposition you were asked about taking a picture of your phone and you said, and i quote, i still have that phone. i could put it on the table right here and every person in the room could look at that individual text and validate that it's a legitimate text and the date and time stamp on it. are you willing to provide the committee voluntarily with the blackberry referenced and the phone? >> i'm willing to sit in the room with both the chairman and the ranking member with my phone and other staff and we can go through each and every text

message. as i said in my interview i had a forensics expert love into my blackberry someone who's done extensive work for over ten years with an interest of pulling all the data off the phone so i can provided to the committee. unfortunately, they were using software that the fbi uses and they were unable to pull the data off the phone, so i'm more than willing to sit in the room with the chairman and the ranking member and other staff with the blackberry fully charged and we can go through each and every message. >> that's some progress and i understand that but you understand i'm sure by the committee wants to look at the evidence on its own. this is my time. you could understand why we would want to look at evidence while we can make our own determination. but thank you for your willingness to cooperate at that

level. you observed back in 2023 and a letter you sent to the chairman that there were examples of giuliani interfering in ukrainian politics. why would a giuliani the interfering in another countries politics? >> humor to do whatever he needed for the purpose of getting the information he wanted to secure donald trump for the 2020 election, so a prime example of one of the things he did he had a close relationship with vladimir who was then the mayor in ukraine when the new president came over there was rumors about staying in office in ukraine. they met with rudy giuliani and then on a meeting that we had in spain that was relevant and had

to do with announcing an investigation into joann hunter biden at that meeting he also brought up the situation that basically told that president trump and of the american people would be very upset because we love him and he needs to be in their. >> so was he just doing this on his own because he was a patriotic american who loved donald trump or how to somebody encouraged him to engage in this interference in another country? >> i think he was encouraged by donald trump. >> personally? that's your testimony? thank you. in your letter you also said that mr. giuliani was, quote, to deliver a precise message in very strict words. with respect to the

administration, what did you understand a very strict message or very strict words construed and what was that message that you delivered thought was in very strict words? >> yes, congressman. he told me not to be nice, to be very stern and we had a message that unless he had an investigation into the biden's, this was on sunday, there would be no cooperation or aid and the vice president that was scheduled to appear for the inauguration would not appear to the inauguration. >> that would seem to corroborate that very famous and beautiful telephone conversation between president trump and zelenskyy basically saying that i need a favor and hinting the withholding of military aid until the favor was delivered. is that fair? >> absolutely. i was part of setting up that

phone call. your testimony is important and under oath. thank you and i yield back. >> ms. taylor green from georgia for five minutes about his role in his families businesses. in 2020 he stood up on stage of a presidential debate and told the american people that his family didn't take any money from china. that was a lie. not only was it a lie, he knew it was a lie. he knew it because he met with his friend hunter biden chinese business associates. i want to talk about cfc which is the china energy fund committee. who is chairman he? >> the chairman.

>> gym biden told the fbi and irs that he was the protégé of the leader of china and the chinese communist party. rob walker told the committee joe biden met the chairman. are you aware of that yes or no? >> i am now. i wasn't at the time. >> joe biden also met with you is that right? >> yes, twice. >> who was the director? >> the number two at cfc. >> the executive director? >> the number two executive, but the point person i worked with and the biden family worked with and the individual hunter biden was shaking down at the end of july, 2017 demanding that they fund the $10 million directly to hunter biden's account. >> thank you.

i want to show you a text message that hunter biden sent to you and his other business associates. i'm holding it right here. i have an idea in light of the fact we are at an impasse of sorts and most employer and my chairman gave an emphatic no i think we should all meet in romania. he is speaking about my chairman. when hunter biden came in for his deposition, he said he was referring to the chairman and that the rest of the group referred to him as a different chairman. does this make any sense to you? >> that is a lie. i never heard in your reference and i directed communications with the director over we chat, met him in romania, met him in moscow, around the world trying to develop this business and he was never referred to as the chairman. first of all. the second of all, that makes absolutely no sense in the context of the message because we are discussing the holdings.

>> so he wasn't the chairman, just to clarify. i want to show you another text when he said his chairman, this is from wall rob walker. he said this to you when hunter was talking about his chairman, he was talking about his dad. when rob walker came into give the transcribed interview to the committee, he basically said while hunter was high or confused or mad, and he said he was just trying to calm things down between you and hunter but that doesn't answer the question about who he's talking about. hunter biden lied to the committee. so, here clearly he says he's talking about his dad. i want to be clear we have established that he's not the chairman obviously, is that

correct? >> correct. let me show you another message. this message doesn't call him the chairman, does it? it says the chinese want to do business with of the biden's as a matter of fact both coming to be my partner, to be partners with the bidens, he has implied the number one has made it clear and available. who is the number one? the number one, the president of china, yes or no. the leader of the communist party, the ccp, is the number one? >> that is the number one hunter was referencing in that message. >> let's be very clear this was in 2017, but i would like to make it known for the committee joe biden told the press in 2016 as a matter of fact, i quote,

yes, i am, i'm going to run in 2020. he was running for president of the united states in 2020. so here is the bidens doing business in china when everybody knows he was planning to be president of the united states. do you see that to be a serious problem? >> i wish the committee would thoroughly investigate it and talk about the evidence that they have on cfc. they have fisa warrants so they were including and i wish they would disclose that to the committee. >> thank you. i yield. >> the chair recognizes mr. krishnamurthy. >> rudy giuliani tasked you with a mission to travel the globe to find dirt to damage the biden's reputation and the 2018 and 2019 timeframe. this was on the effort to secure

trumps reelection. evidence of wrongdoing or criminality? in your travels you found precisely zero proof of the criminality, right? is it true you've looked for dirt around the world in the same way joe biden in particular all failed the evidence of criminal wrongdoing? not only that but the former ukrainian president stated there's not a single word of truth to the allegations about joe biden, right? >> yes. >> now there is a guy that's the former prosecutor general of ukraine and he also confirmed that nothing ties the bidens to criminal activity in ukraine,

right? >> correct. >> and there's another prosecutor general who also said he had no evidence that either joe or hunter biden interfered with ukrainian law and the reason you know this is because you talked to each of these people. and your job was to try to dig up dirt and manufacture but we've conducted months of hearings and because there's no evidence of wrongdoing, you called this whole inquiry a wild goose chase. interestingly, we've heard from the other side of that the real quid pro quo wasn't donald trump. it was joe biden when he tried to hold up foreign aid when he was vice president in exchange for firing the prosecutor in ukraine that was investigated and the corruption from his son. now again you looked for

evidence to support this claim. there is no evidence, correct? >> firing the prosecutor would make it more likely that they would go after the company in question, not less, right? >> the reason why the majority and ukraine and at the obama administration wanted to get rid of him is because he was corrupt, not because he was investigating but he was stalling investigation looking into a $23 million they wanted to get out from and they stalled that investigation. >> the logic is just the opposite of what the majority claims to be the case. namely that they say that somehow joe biden was held to fire the prosecutor to reduce the chances of a prosecution. but actually in firing the prosecutor, he increased the

chances of prosecuting, right? >> so let me talk about what some of the other witnesses in this inquiry have said. the constitutional expert, the republicans brought forth said there's no evidence of which he was aware to support impeaching the president. you agree with that? >> 100%. a colleague of ours said last week have i seen anything that is impeachable, no i haven't. do you agree with that statement as well? our republican colleague who is about to retire said that evidence of wrongdoing by president biden, quote, doesn't exist right now. it doesn't exist now and it didn't then. >> that's true. >> how many times have you met donald trump? >> well over ten times. i'd have to count, but lots of times. >> is there anything you would like to relate about the conversations with donald trump that would bear on the conduct of these proceedings?

>> donald trump was aware of everything going on that day in the red room when we were white house, after rudy bringing donald trump up to speed and then trump approached me, said thank you for all you're doing, keep up the good work, patted me on the back, took pictures and i was off to bring him back here to meet with lindsay graham. >> thank you so much. i yield back. >> mr. cloud from texas for five minutes. >> thank you, chairman. we have heard time after time he had no knowledge whatsoever about the business dealings and the change. he never allegedly had any conversation with hunter and they moved the ball to say he didn't have any business dealings. he wasn't involved in the financial contributions since then we've uncovered about 20

show companies and have bank records that bring light to that and while we can't cover all 20 in five minutes, i want to focus on one and that is rosemont. rosemont it is interesting, devon archer testified and said in his testimony he said that this was used as a common entity on the handshake deal between devon and hunter splitting the chairs. that was your word. do you stand by those words? and devon archer, he said hunter was a corporate secretary and had a handshake to get the ownership deal is that correct? >> correct, yes. >> primarily the company was set up to initially place to hold

equity on the harvest is that correct? it included money paid from the $50 million. >> if this were illegally and id there's no propriety, it's concerning because it is set up to compete against america's energy interest at the behest of the ccp. then we had others from and we know about the salary providing no actual function. we had 1 million going through

rosemont to hunter biden and meeting. there's the $300 at the end of the 142,000 that goes into this and then the next day went to a porsche dealership for a car for hunter biden. what's interesting about all of this of course is that each of these not only fluid money through the companies to hunter biden but each of them also involved important meetings with of course president biden. so we had coffee with jonathan who was one of the members who started the harvest and was connected with the ccp. they were having trouble getting licensed to work because of course they had to give permission to that. until hunter flew over with his own air force with vice

president joe biden at the time. they met with jonathan lee, hunter introduced them. joe ended up writing a letter of recommendation to jonathan lee's daughter to get into college, and then we see that this relationship continues. of course in ukraine, we know that april 16, 2015, joe biden had dinner with the officials at café milano, seemed to be a popular spot because joe biden also had dinner. all inflow to going here. and of course as pointed out several times, this all comes down to eventually the one big guy who gets 10% to the big guy. we know this goes through to get to hunter and 10% went to the big guy.

.. congressman outlined the big guy is clearly joe biden. the details of some of those transaction is not involved in. that is excluding how they operated. quickset is the pay answered. and mr. galanis use of the begetting hunter did not provide any propriety asset value or anything of the sort. his entire value was the brand, is that correct? how did you state that? >> we did rely on him for any product other than delivering the biden. >> of a question for you mr. galanis. did you offer to provide information on hunter biden and devon archer back in 2006 into prosecutors and the sec and what

happened there? >> yes. specifically on that. and also the same thing to the exchange commission. were told to quash that interest. i understood that to be in order to determine i yield back. >> the chairman's time has expired. recognize mr. goldman for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i only have five minutes mr. bobulinkski i'm going to try to move quickly i would appreciate if you answer the question. you testified joe biden was involved in your business venture and hunter biden. i want to drill down on the crux of what your testimony is. the suit business venture you are referring to correct?

>> i'm referring to what? >> any business you do with the biden's. >> might reference are the holdings llc owned 50% of that. >> rachel. a knight holding was a 50% that was on the american side of that deal, right? >> 50% the biden side of it. he's not an american. >> click sorry fair enough. it was a joint partnership memorialized incorporating document, correct and equal shares divided among five partners is that right? >> eight asking that what you are holding up? >> where there equal 20% shares among five partners? >> in a what? in the final sign a document is that what you're asking? >> yes very. >> it is not complicated.

>> you are filibustering now. you are filibustering, i get it. there were five partners, hunter biden, jim biden, rob walker, james gilley art and you. each own 20%. >> they did not each of the llc owned it. there's a material difference because you see joe biden llc related to joe biden on this? >> i don't know if joe biden owned jim biden llc or hunter biden llc i will leave that up to the committee. >> do you know when this agreement was entered into? >> the posterboard legal document that was signed? what's the agreement sir. >> the agreement was signed may 22, 2017. who is the vice president then? >> may 22 you said? i think it was mike pence. >> was the president? >> donald trump a. >> when did you first meet hunter biden?

>> it first met hunter biden early 2017. >> when? one and 2017? >> the day or month? >> the month is good too. >> i believe i briefly met him in new york. the first meeting i had had exte time with him was early may 2017 brickwork cells from the same time you have the two meetings with the joe biden, right? what's prior to that. >> you have said insert comments or can i please reclaim my time sir as i said we have to move quickly here. unfortunately in your testimony earlier today what if my one ofy colleagues asked you about that meeting at the bar at 45 minutes, 60 minutes you were also asked about that in your transcribed interview. and neither of your answers did you mention any discussion that you had at that meeting with joe biden about the chinese business venture. yet in grandiose terms here today you have declared joe biden was involved. and you have the mountains of irrefutable evidence to support

it. so let's look at the mountains of irrefutable evidence. you provide the committee with a screenshot of a text message that is between james gilley art and you dated may 11, 2017. i don't know if you can see this. it is just you and james, right? you remember this text message i am sure products generally yes. >> in it he writes you are right. let's get the company set up till families the high stakes and get joe involved. two days later he sent an e-mail and hunter biden in which she suggested a division of the company and included a proposal "10% held by h for the big guy? you remember that, right? >> the infamous e-mail with the big guy, yes, i do. >> it in them and respond to that e-mail? >> yes they did numerous times. you're right.

did respond to it. >> you're going to filibustering to replay my time it's running out. i will say no and responded to the big guy reference checks thank you for making my point they did not have to respond. they all they do the big guys joe biden peroxide reclaim my time please controlled the witness. i would like to get a little extra time mr. chairman i want to read what mr. said to the wall street journal. i'd like to clear up any speculation for former vice president was involved with the 2017 discussions about our potential business structure. i'm unaware of any involvement at any time of the former vice president for the activity in question never delivered project revenue you should print what joe biden involved that is why hunter biden. [inaudible] i the chairman's time is

expired. recognize mr. higgins thank you for being here today we appreciate the candor of your response which is reflective of the way you handle yourself in private testimony and deposition thank you for speaking truthful to the american people today. i am going to ask about the china energy fund committee. are you familiar with that, sir? >> site m. >> is assigned multibillion dollar company like a fortune 500 company at one time? what is even bigger than that. if you go back and look at its financials in 2016 and 17 as one of the five largest private companies in china. >> exactly. so this was a major, a major operation. a lot of money and apparently

i'm going to hold up a memo here. this is a chart from the sink and -- second bank memo. it shows the disbursement of almost $24 million for diamonds. you have a major chinese company a lot of company on diamonds and apparently diamonds were used as a means of payment for the biden family. we know the biden's admitted having to diamonds. we suspect there are many, many more $23 million worth of diamonds. are you familiar with the exchange of valuable assets to

pay the biden's other than electronic transfers of money? are you aware of payments in diamonds? payments in cash? payments in board memberships et cetera? >> in my generally aware of it? i read it jim biden and hunter biden's transcript multiple times. jim biden and the transcript references to biden or to diamonds given to hunter biden. when he implies was in 2015 by an individual who he could not recall his name at the individual's name is scott o who is a surrogate for cfc and apparently a second diamond at a meeting in miami. i really want to set the clock record clear i was not at that physical meeting. i was in miami but i was not at that physical meeting breed that is what i told the fbi in my interview projects are you aware mr. bobulinkski a pattern of a

bribery of a bribe payments coming from the china energy fund committee? >> i appreciate that question wish everyone on this committee would read the 1200 pages of testimony. an eight day trial on the actual trial trial was going on that accused numerous executives of corruption, bribing,. >> exactly brickwork soup political figures of africa. >> so exactly. so mr. bobulinkski for your perch within the biden family operations and their interactions with the major businesses in china they exchange millions of dollars are tracked through bank records, through suspicious activity reports a. two females, to communications this committee has documented. there is no debate. millions and millions of dollars flow into the biden family bank

accounts. the existence of other forms of payment is fascinating. because diamonds are untraceable. we do not know how many diamonds the biden's received. >> we don't have for some it is been china 10 plus time, hong kong. hundreds of people working one point i never got a dime. i got never got a dime. i shift quickly at gentleman named james. it's only when you are face to face as a response saying they should be paranoid about things. and then there is a response saying for real. so, what is mentioned by don't

mention joe being involved for prettily when you're face-to-face. i know that they are paranoid pick brexit up of the biden's operate not specifically the cfc you have galanis testifying and numerous other witnesses i'm getting a tremendous amount of evidence that outline these for the create layers of obstruction that's the reason robert walker was getting sent and millions of dollars instead of hunter biden. those hunter directly. in plausible deniability. race mr. norton from d.c. for five minutes. thank you for peering appearingvoluntarily for this hg from alabama. i understand you are currently serving 189 month sentence in

federal prison almost 16 years after being convicted of not one but two.one, not two, but three different schemes. victims of your schemes as the judge who presided of your criminal prosecution included in here i quote one of the poorest native american in the country. as well as pension funds held for transit workers, longshoremen, housing authority, workers and the city employees. hard working people every day people among others. the court also noted you personally benefited from these schemes and again i quote using

over $8 million. almost 9 million for lavish personal expenditures jewelry, expenses, sign your own encounter with prosecutors. exchange commission charge you in 2005 with accounting fraud in connection with your investments, your involvement rather with the penthouse magazine. and in 2010 you were convicted of attempted tax evasion were sentenced to five years probation in order to pay nearly $10 million in restitution. and noted you are and i quote an

extremely extremely talented man. extremely gifted in his interpersonal skills uncommonly so. he is very persuasive. those were the tools in his tool bag. and the people he ensnared his intelligence comes interpersonal skills, his charm if you will. this comment referred to as con artists. another judge who presided of your case referred to you as your republican colleagues are relying on to carry their water in this sham impeachment inquiry.

after the last star witness the infamous fbi form 1023. this time he put an end thank you very much for more than a year now leave here innuendo, propaganda, no facts, no evidence but several expert witnesses who came together their witnesses agreed with that. nothing remotely approached the level of proof needed to support a finding of high crimes and

misdemeanors. we come back again today the majority is to witnesses. the designated conman to charm d by two different courts. someone who deploys talent exploiting native american indian tribes and then mr. bobulinkski a lot of rhetoric and hot air but no facts of high crimes and misdemeanors impeachable offenses against the republic. the kinds of offenses james mattis said are great attacks on the republican celt great affronts to our republican form of government. and nobody on the other side can even tell us what is the impeachable high crime and "higd misdemeanors" which suggests they are moving in the direction of criminal referrals and start by looking at their own witnesses arch get back to you.

>> i like to remind the witness was partners with hunter biden. that is why he is here. we have their partners they could have invited partners but you invited this guy per. >> donald trump's partner. mr. parnas per. >> a chair recognizes per. >> in a variety things like to go through. but first mr. lynch compare complaint about testifying from prison so i would like to ask unanimous consent to enter into the record department of justice own press release announcing the sentencing of democrats that led parnas to prison. >> the objection. thank you. now mr. chairman we had originally hoped we'd see if you want witnesses here today. they are not here. i'd like to run a brief dictate because i showed up today hoping

i'll be asking these witnesses a little bit more about this tape. i know there is some mystery or some people feel it is still ambiguous as to how this prosecutor was fired in ukraine and at this tape goes a little bit more to shed light on why the prosecutor was fired and why we want hunter biden and mr. archer? >> got ukraine. i remember going over convincing our team that we should be providing out of the 12th or 13th time and i was supposed to announce there's not a billion-dollar loan guarantee. i'd gotten the commitment that they would take action against a the state prosecutor and they didn't.

they said were not going to give the billion dollars. the president said i said. i'm telling you you're not getting a billion dollars. the prosecutors not fired and he got fired. and put in place someone. >> i just wanted to put that up there. i do eventually want further efforts made to get hunter biden mr. archer we have joe biden himself bragging they got rid of a prosecutor who would have provided his son's business dealings. with more observation. i'll put it that way. now mr. bobulinkski and previous interviews with this committee

you said joe biden not only knew about the family business dealings but enabled them and participated with them. you went so far as to say it's clear to me joe biden was the brand sold by the biden family. could you elaborate why he felt that way? >> corrected. that's where the challenging things i've had to deal with over the last four years with the focus of simply telling the truth. around these facts are just beyond insane. i'll use a meeting at the four seasons hotel in washington d.c. i was not at but apparently eight -- 10 chinese executives were at with the chairman and director. interacted with extensively. and james was in that room. rob walker, hunter biden my understanding based on rob walker's testimony is joe biden walked into that room. sat down, shook hands of people spent five or 10 minutes talking

about his family i guess. i was not in the room. like joe biden was walking in there to ask about the weather. robert walker said the chinese did not even know joe biden was a former vice president of the united states which is beyond absurd. the power at those 10 chinese individuals had to go back to mainland china and say they were in a room with joe biden is the value of what they were giving. to give plausible deniability. >> i would just point to all the different text messages and communications they call him the big guy. i was not involved or mr. archer they're giving numerous data points they did not use his name you weren't supposed to talk about it. >> you personally met with the

vice president. >> i did twice. did he say anything you wanted him to help us on that sort of thing? >> he thanked me for helping a son and his brother and asked me too keep an eye on them as i walked him out to his car after he gave his speech on the second meeting. >> i just went to follow up this may be a big question but i'd like to know but one of the things that disturbs me about that is the interaction with the chinese or that's were dealing with today that obviously other countries as well. that apparently in their own mind the way you deal with the united states is the way you deal with a corrupt city council or something. you give them money and you get what you want too. .do you want to comment on that or hear the stories about that? do you hear stories they were surprised at easy it was to buy the u.s. government? >> answer the question please feel free to answer the question. >> there is tremendous evidence

believe they are bribing the biden family and they were doing at the hunter biden. >> those kind of shameful thank you. >> very good. the chair recognizes for five minutes. >> think it mr. chairman. can you tell me about your meetings why you believe the trump campaign uses services? >> yes. i was sent to meet with demetri because he had a resources he is in oligarch in vienna waiting to be extradited to the united states he was very close with a vladimir putin lots of characters not part of the world. my objective was to have him help us lean on them and get dirt on the biden's per. >> what type of dirt were you trying to get?

>> was searching for hunter's hard drive we were told was out there. we were searching for bank records to validate certain bank records that were given to meete hunter's personal bank records. i was given to me he said he got from the fbi. to validate certain payments going for car purchases. that objective was to try to find a link from any of the payments that were going to joe biden's accounts for. >> who told you to get this dirt? cooks who told me, rudy giuliani perfects anyone else that she remember? >> jon i meet everybody this part of the team for. >> to bill barton know you were involved in getting this dirt? absolutely. bill barr was notified of our investigation for the day took office but. >> did you have a conversation with a built bar being lenient towards demetri in his role as attorney general? they personally did not i was a

witness to victoria and joe having a conversation with bill barr. >> what did they say? >> basically they were telling him the chargers were false and he is to drop the charges and end the case for. >> where they tell him to drop the charges on the russian oligarch? >> because demetri's going to help us getting dirt on the bidens or whatever else the trump campaign needed for. >> my understanding issue of the trump campaign telling you to talk to russian oligarch to get dirt for political reasons. someone from the trump campaign was talking to drop the charges. because the foreign nationals helping to get dirt on the potable candidate. in the indicate willingness they came back and what you know if

if bill barr told her to say that? >> any evidence of bill barr would have indicated to signal to demetri the charges to be dropped? >> only from conversations or rudy giuliani. >> what did they say about what bill barr said? works he basically told me this to be taken care of as long as they played ball that's the message they relayed to me. >> they said bill barr was conveying that to them directly? >> yes after meetings there are several meetings there is a private meeting bumped into bill barr at the trump international hotel he is that is a moment to take him aside and speak to them. there are certain official meetings through official channels where victoria met with them. so it yes. >> you know if anything was done with the charges? >> to this day demetri's not here. >> do you believe bill barr

should be investigated for his conduct and potentially dropping these charges? >> like absolute believe that. not only that i believe bill barr should investigate into the cover up and trying to silence me too get the truth out of what really happened in ukraine for. >> explain the cover up what you believe should be investigated with you last minute? >> my arrest was set up strictly to shut me up to seal my documents, take away my information and turn me into a crazy man that i have no way to prove what's going on. but the real story was bill barth was trying to save donald trump from impeachment and use me as a scapegoat. when he did not realize his is hisdonald trump was not going to stop and continue doing what he want to do. that's why blew up and bill barr's face. he hired special counsel at the time to look into ukraine but we tried to reach out my attorney to, special counsel brady he never returned her phone calls. nobody wanted to hear anything i had to say that had to do with ukraine. >> legitimate yield quester. >> thank you.

i just want to say we do not hear bombast rhetoric but you are telling a true story you conducted yourself with great purpose and great dignity. i know your son is here with you today happy and the rest of your family are proud of what you're doing for america you'll backbite. >> thank you. gerrit recognizes ms. o'donnell's in florida for five minutes per. >> thank you chairman. it is been an interesting hearing so far us get to the actual paper trail of money flow from cfc into the bank account for president joe biden. i want to start they texted minutes is july 31 between hunter biden and one mr. is our part really quick who is mr. tsao? >> congressman i'd like to spend 20 seconds. if you noticed congressman straight out of your very quickly. i am actually disgusted as i sit here he did not address me based on the fact i'm sitting here in front of the world trying to

testify to the truth. october 2020 of messages on them and their produce on the democrats and the republicans sent to me saying you have always demonstrated to me you are nothing but it on us with the highest integrity individual i was begging for him to go on cnn and tell the world october 2020. i have extensive e-mails with congressman in 2021 and 2022 where i begged him and his staff to sit down with me and look at my blackberry phones the democrats are so focused on to higher forensics experts and go through all of the factual information that i had. the fact he did not address me and it scurried out of here is disgusting to me. >> alright mr. donald i'll answer your question now. >> were going have to come off that now or three minutes 30 seconds. mr. chairman for the record i went to submit into the record text message one july 31 between hunter biden and mr. zahl which

stipulates hunter biden was to be able to move on from get the contract resolved get the deal resolved and says see it is willing to cooperate with the family on august 31 there was another exchange. this time august 3 excuse me between hunter biden in this message the stipulations of the arrangement between the biden family and cfc for the record mr. chairman for. >> without objections or to pay. >> the money flow this is where the rubber meets the road. on august 3 they stipulate through what's app text messages the stipulations of the deal on august 4 $100,000 as a wired into a pc seat efc infrastructure mr. [cheering] to submit for the record a portion of the bank statement

for the time. august 3 of stipulating a wonder to thousand dollars going from cfc into the bank account of hunter biden. >> 's objections ordered. >> on august 8, 4 days later $5 million is transferred from northern international capitol account $5 million to hudson west the third point hudson was the third is a bank account controlled by hunter biden and kevin who is the cfc associate. that money comes in the northern international capitol a bank account a bank account tied to the cc pete mr. chairman adjustment for the record the bank statement demonstrating that transfer. >> objections ordered for. >> okay moving on. on august 8 the same time. there is a wire transfer form the thousand dollars to pc from

the hudson west the third bank account. that form the thousand dollars mr. chairman i of the transfer records and the bank account from the august time. i would just admit that for the record. >> without objections so ordered. >> this is where the fun stuff comes innovative got a minute to get going get it done. on august 14 there is one or $50000 that is transferred which is controlled by hunter biden to lyon hall group is controlled by james biden. i have the records are mr. chairman won a $50000 that has gone i want to submit that for the record. >> without objections or to pick cotton august 28 that we have a screenshot for everyone in the room. on august 28 we have the withdrawal tickets from lion hall group that is signed by biden hit was the wife of jim biden for $50000 to withdrawal from the group. i went to submit the withdrawal receipt for the period.

>> without objections ordered. >> on september 3 of the deposit reference into the biden account on the same day i went to submit that for the record. >> without objection so ordered progress last document septembes personal account there is a check written to joseph biden junior the president of the united states today for $40000 signed loan repayment for a loan repayment by the way joe biden's own personal accountant mr. eric as no record for. going to submit that for the record mr. chairman fairplex of that objection sorta perplexes the members of the committee it's clear the source of this money came from cfc it is a company directly linked to the ccp and action of the chairman of the ccp eight chairman of the chinese, his party chairman xijinping it without a yield pic looks very good. >> mr. chairman and got a request?

>> go ahead but. >> white house the staff report of the minority side the unit in trump world tower. to determine one or 89 months in prison ordering him to pay restitution of more than $80 billion for three criminal fraud conspiracies and other investors progress that objections order. the chair now recognizes for five minutes. if i were not here somewhere around the country watching. congress of the united states and this case 15 months hold

these hearings on hunter biden and 15 months as you can see today as a result of that. this is a do-nothing congress. which we do the jobs which we are sent to do which is not to have investigation hearing after investigation hearing over and over and over again and then to her favorite tv outlet to give interviews after his weary sit here to get a job done. taxpayers are looking at all of us. meanwhile americans black, white, asian, latino native american and their families are wondering what is going on. is this another investigation hearing in the 15 months that has yielded nothing at all? it is the do-nothing congress but you thought harry truman said 1948, anyone can say it today but look at what we have

done in 15 months. virtually nothing. nothing at all. senior citizens sit in their homes and watch c-span or some other outlet carried this for some sitting in nursing homes. all of them worried about losing the social security. they are on fixed incomes they expect congress to use it time and it's energy to deal with things that affect them directly. students are divulging on loans to colleges all over the country. no one wants to talk about that. healthcare isn't adequate. most places in this country. disease are ravaging our communities and people assume that at some point the congress will do with that. and so whether it is cancer, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, diabetes, hiv, stroke, the disparities in the health system say please, please give us a little bit of your time also when you are not done with hunter biden and when you can

prove he's done anything wrong. crime is out of control. white collar as well as black color. assault weapons are still being used every day. the shooting kills innocent children and americans. we are sitting here talking about something we have talked about for 15 months with no substantial evidence. can get humanitarian aid to palestine. cannot get military aid to the ukraine. children are looking and wondering what is going on. is that what politics are about? we are doing a disservice but i know i'm supposed to be asking questions and mr. parnas i may have one or two for you i'm so outraged at a do-nothing congress. just pointing the finger, pointing the finger over and over again and people are hurting. looking for real help. cannot do with immigration because donald trump calls up and kills immigration bill yet

people say that's a major issue, is it? i have not seen the sort of attention we thought we were put into that or anything else. and so this particular hearing will probably be followed by another hearing and another hearing and another hearing until this congress expires in january of next year end we have not done the thing to move the ball forward. except make accusations. life is too short. maybe some of you have a guarantee you're going to be around forever, but i don't. i came to this body first in 1987. i worked under ronald reagan and the first bush and bill clinton and donald trump. and now joe biden. this congress is not doing anything. it's not like the previous congress, trust me. that is my people have such a low esteem of those of us on congressman so-and-so. people on the street don't buy that.

they do not see the action. i am done i know i've exhausted my time. mr. parnas a couple quick questions and i what you go. is it your understanding rudy giuliani work for an individual identified by the company trump administration as a russian agent? >> yes. >> do you know what these russian light actors were trying to do quickly? >> pushed a conspiracy theory about the biden's brickwork said you know did you warn rudy giuliani? >> yes, i did pick. >> what was his response to cinque lee? lexi told me -- mickey agreed with me but then proceeded to work with these people behind my back too. >> and these people been identified as russian agents? >> yes, sir. >> we have a meeting here of mr. i am disgusted, as most people are about this process. the only way we get to a point where we get things done as we learn to talk to one another

across the aisle without having another conspiracy theory after another one after another one. you don't buy trust that way, you by contempt i yield back exit chair recognizes her five minutes. >> think you mr. chairman. i want to start off by saying i think most americans are taught at a very young age that you are who you surround yourself with. keep that in a premise as i sat here and listen to everyone talk about how hunter biden is this golden boy. are we really supposed to believe hunter biden is the golden boy? his associates are felons convicted of fraud. yet he is the golden child. i want to talk about examples of the biden's influence peddling scheme. this time it was romania. it follows the same general pattern as we have seen with other countries like china,

russia, ukraine and kazakhstan. here is the pattern it's really simple a corrupt foreign oligarch needs access to the u.s. government. hunter biden the oligarchs pay up let's just take a deeper dive into this romanian scheme. mr. bobulinkski who is gabriel? >> he is a businessman from romania probably worth hundreds of millions of dollars i would envision. >> is it true that he faced corruption charges in romania in 2015 kuester. >> it is. >> when you were in europe with the biden's to close on that deal with the chinese you separately negotiated to get a 17th payment is at also it alsocorrect question. >> i did. but he did not want to pay him, is that correct?

>> correct your talk at modest 17th payment that would go to rob walker robert walker would distribute to hunter biden. >> that is correct. it is because hunter biden failed in the work he was engaged to do. which was to get the corruption charges dismissed by the romanian authorities. isn't that correct? >> it is two things they failed to do that. but also joe biden had left the white house at that point. >> okay i get 16 payments while joe biden is in the white house. >> correct spread. >> after joe biden leaves the white house coincidentally the payments stop. >> correct to pray. >> just want to make sure we can connect the dots very sip simply pick. >> obviously is not a coincidence. >> i am not much for coincidence which neither are the american people. but what do you think he wanted

hunter biden to do? >> i don't have to think because gabriel told me personally he expected and did not want the details he expected hunter biden, robert walker and james to do whatever it was necessary to impact his case in romania. >> how do you know that? lex because he told me that. >> from his mouth? >> yes. >> there is a another.we can connect with that be a conspiracy theory question. >> us on a conspiracy theory pricks okay thank you for it i would encourage you to interview gabriel. >> thank you. lastly, after claiming he wanted a public hearing, hunter biden decided to skip today. why do you think he skip the hearing today? >> is at a rhetorical or serious? i don't think you want to sit next to me because obviously i've emphatically stated he perjured himself and transcribed interview with the committee as did his uncle jim bided and for

every fact he claims her wants to say i was high on drugs or i can show a document, a text message, a recording that confirms he is lying. >> tot lot at the facts get in the way of a good story, right? here are the facts are. >> highly disappointing is that you're that pig. >> i would agree, i would agree. here are the facts hunter biden was engaged by a foreign principal. it is well-known hunter bike and met with the ambassador to romania in november of 2015. hunter biden was not registered. he stopped getting paid as soon as his father leaves office. until you got popovich to send hunter bite it one more payment. seriously, what services was hunter biden providing to the romanian oligarchs for millions of dollars? we have yet to hear it too.

as far as the committee knows hunter biden was never registered under the foreign registration act. if the department of justice applied the same standard it did in the case hunter would be in more case than he is already in. mr. chairman there are real issues here that we need to continue to look at but with that i thank you for being here and i think you mr. chairman. >> absolutely thank you good job for the chair recognizes from new york. >> thank you mr. chair. mr. bobulinkski, i heard your opening statement, submitted to the record part of our proceedings. i have a quick question, simple. is that your testimony today that you personally witnessed president joe biden commit a crime? >> i believe the fact he was sitting with me while i was

putting together. >> a jew witnessed the president commit a crime customer is it your testimony today? >> yes. >> what crime have you witnessed? >> how much time to have to go through? >> it's simple you name the crime did you watch them steal something question. >> corruptions statutes rico. >> what is the crime sir? specifically. >> you asked me too ask the question to answer the question. ricoh you're obviously not family with corruptions statutes for a quick sixers excuse me sir. excuse me sir. excuse me sir. ricoh is not a crime it is a category. >> the category of crime you are then charged with the. >> you have charges. sir please name. >> the statute under ricoh customer gets funny in this committee room everyone is not here. >> i reclaim my time. i reclaim my time but i reclaim my time. thank you i reclaim my time.

clearly, what we are seeing here today is a continuation of the 15 month saga of the republican majority lost in the desert. impeachment 101. the majority party or whoever is raising impeachment must accuse the president of a high crime a specific high crime or misdemeanor i would like to submit for the record h rez 9.8 the house resolution to open this impeachment inquiry perfect without objections to order. >> this does not outline a high crime or misdemeanor it is not here. when we compare the opening from the previous opening he's talking about ukraine. a blockbuster piece of information in a classified

skiff room. inside that room alleging president biden extremely furious. what happened? what happened a month ago mr. chairman? that document the fbi arrested the person a person who offered the allegation for falsifying his testimony to the fbi. the entire impeachment inquiry is based on an actual, approvable, individual who has lied. responsible leadership with withdraw an inquiry based on that. withdraw. instead, what we are seeing is this committee was warned long before that or invite trump secretary of state mike pompeo get they proceeded anyway the

chairman proceeded anyway. this committee was warned by rudy giuliani after that document about the falsehoods of this. then held hearings her own expert witnesses said there's no grounds for impeachment and free proceeded anyway. finally, as if none of this was enough the fbi arrested the individual who was the source of the entire to quote the chairman part of the manner to launch this impeachment inquiry and proceeded anyway. at this point the story is not the fact the basis of this impeachment inquiry is wrong. the story is what its proceeding anyway. why is this committee proceeding based on false charges? by the way no charges i have yet to hear in the chairman's

opening the allegation they are specifically charging the president of the united states with. i am hearing about biden family. i'm hearing about this and that. i am not hearing the specific allegation by this committee. what is it? it is not here and that is the problem. this committee knew their work with falsified evidence. that is the story. with that i yield back and fix potential it yields back the chair recognizes ms. mays from south carolina for five minutes for. >> thank you mr. chart march 4, 25 for joe biden stated he did not interact with hunter or jim bided business associates. i like to ask you know's consent to enter to be record your post article biden insist he did not interact by. >> objections order. >> were going to go faster strictly yes or no questions. on that note the "new york post" article joe biden also said read the record of every single

witness. so i did. i first read devon archer's deposition he interact with joe biden by donna read the transcript of george burgess, kevin morse, tony bobulinkski and jason. in every single one of them interacted with joe biden. that's just the people we interviewed. my first questions are for you. that hunter biden call joe biden on the line on may 4, 2014 yes or no? >> yes for. >> and that called it hunter biden stay on this call with joe biden that everything is good we are moving forward? >> yes he did pick. >> okay on the same call to joe bided in the call was saying okay then you begin to my boy? >> yes he said that is well requested agreed to put $20 million into one of hunter biden's business projects days later sent to this phone call? >> yes. >> it hunter biden ever take a call from joe biden in new york? >> that is right. >> it hunter biden ever take a call from joe biden while

dependence of our new york? >> yes he did pay. >> during this call that hunter might update joe biden on progress in landing a business partnership harvest fund management? >> yes but. >> was harvest a three billion-dollar chinese financial services company closely tied to the chinese commons party? >> yes it was very. >> is hunter biden involved with harvest? two ways. >> yes or no. [inaudible] brick hunter biden involved yes or no? >> yes. as part of the deal to hunter biden with the company to deliver board seat prejudged biden? >> yes by. >> okay did henry the chinese businessman one assurances joe biden would join the board yes or no? >> yes he did. >> okay. and an e-mail as well. >> okay thank you printed hunter bided drafted e-mail stating please offer the conversation about a board seat for certain

relation of mine. then a golf without relation earlier this week we discussed is very id again. as always been very keen on the opportunity. here is a photo of joe biden and devon archer and hunter biden golfing days before the alleged e-mail draft. do you believe a certain relation of mine refers to joe biden? >> consider that there's any question. >> 's scenes in that picture but. >> did you ever meet with devon archer were hunter took calls for his father? >> yes we. >> are one of these phone calls that hunter by until joe bided date needed help getting quote getting across the finish line? >> yes that is correct for. >> okay if you recall receiving an e-mail the possible giving 10% ownership to joe biden threat to biden? >> yes but. >> my last questions are for both of you very quickly. mr. bobulinkski and mr. galanis you both stated to told not to use joe biden's name is

communications, correct? >> yes it. >> yes a progressive joe biden participated: phone conversations may hunter biden's business associates and foreign interest yes or no? mr. bobulinkski. >> yes he clearly deborah. >> yes or no. >> yes. >> hunter biden's deposition he said he did not involve his father in his business and hunter biden lie under oath yes or no? mr. bobulinkski quest for. >> yes. mr. galanis? i said "that's what he said" yes. >> okay as joe biden lying when he says he did not enter their business partner support interest yes or no? x yes. mr. galanis? >> yes. >> and debate october 22, 2020 joe biden denied hunter biden made money from china hunter biden's a business associates port it is a good buddy from chinese businesses and business partners and or interest yes or no? mr. bobulinkski? >> i am sorry. >> it hunter bided make money from chinese. >> that hunter biden make money

from chinese business interest yes or no? >> yes. yes. >> trip biden has repeatedly claimed he was not involved and hunter biden, jim biden into their biden business deal today art witnesses have proved otherwise. today we establish a biden lied about interactive hunter biden's business associates it is my belief joe biden is the closer for hunter biden, jim biden and their business associates and foreign interests. good luck to the left of per the otherwise but thank you you back. >> attention when it yields back the chair recognize mr. porter from california. >> the title of this hearing is influence peddling. examining joe bided's abuse of public office. the impeachment inquiry is dead. if it was on life support mike coley aoc just killed it.

there is no allegation of a specific crime. president biden did not do anything wrong gives you evidence of that and still both democrats and republicans and the immediate treat these hearings like the super bowl. but no one ever wins and americans always lose. i've got a fresh direction for this hearing. all we have to do is cross off the part after the colon. there, just influence peddling. we should have a policy discussion how to stop from using their positions to get money or favors that is a real hearing one that nearly every american regardless of party once us to hold. we can start by talking about how senior executive branch officials can leave public service wait just one year to legally become lobbyists for big corporations. scoring new employer's employers profitablegovernment e

regulations. they can even be paid by the big corporations during that short one year. while they are waiting to become lobbyists as a down payment for their future ability to pedal influence. that is wrong. for the panel of witnesses, by show of hands out americans what our witnesses support excitedly when you're waiting. two years? >> i would. >> there we go. republicans, democrats even convicted criminals. everybody supports we should do more to stop influence peddling. it's a government reform americans of all political stripes support and i should know. in 2022 i pass an exact reform as an amendment to the national defense authorization act with a bipartisan majority vote.

what happened to that amendment? why didn't become law? the answer is simple. nearly 500 former members of congress work for lobbying firms. to any people around you and to follow their footsteps. and don't want to make it hard for government officials to be lobbyists. ultimately let's the mma get stripped i offered up the amendment again republican leadership under then speaker kevin mccarthy never put the amendment up for a vote.

other and address the real problem but the american people believe that the rules that prevent corruption our way to week. to stop politicians on both sides of the aisle from peddling the community should be working together in a bipartisan way to change the culture of congress to crack down on peddling and just as importantly, to stop the perception of it. let me give you some facts. i don't even need a white boardd for this, 400 members work for lobbying forms. 467 members of congress take corporate pack money. seventy-eight members of congress violated the stop act last congress.

clearly we have our work cut out for us so let's start the conversation today on what a bipartisan reforms ethic package could look like. the organizations that could have come today as witnesses so we could have had a productive conversation. oversight staff do you have your notebooks ready? the responsibility common cause, project on government oversight, public citizen, with the right witnesses and commitment to doing with the american people want. of the committee can have a real conversation about the problem of influenced peddling and we can pass legislation to create a badly needed ethics guardrails. that would be real work. not a circus. i yield back. >> before i recognize, i think you are sincere and i look forward to working with you on that legislation. can we take a five minute break

for the bathroom? >> let us get one more and then we will do that. the chair recognizes mr. timmons for five minutes and then we will take a break because we have boats coming up anyway. >> a scheme to the biden concocted to sell the biden brand almost $30 million for various numbers the scheme was repeated with romania, russia and ukraine. i'm going to spend my time on one instance involving burisma. the commitment to conspire to bribery for extortion under the 18 usc section 1951 and if you want a refresher on those, look up senator menendez in his wife's indictment. let's start with this. i've got an e-mail here from the

secretary of burisma and he's advocating hunter biden intervened with with officials to facilitate communications expressing their positive opinion of the president of burisma to the prosecutor general with the ultimate purpose to close down any cases. this is dated november 2nd. keep in mind they are being investigated by the inspector general of ukraine and he needs help so here we've got bankrds n receiving prior to this e-mail over a million dollars after the e-mail, $2 million and you will find out so again the $3 million. next, what happens?

this is great 11 days later we have the u.s. embassy announcing the vice president is traveling on december 7th. interesting. vice president biden travels to the country. here we have a great photo of him touching down. so vice president biden leverages the policy to achieve a favorable outcome. we've all seen the video he brags about leveraging u.s. foreign loan guarantees to get the ukrainian government to fire victor to end of the investigation. we've got the e-mail saying that we need to leverage you who haven't provided value for your million dollars in service, he brings in the big guy, biden leverages the u.s. implements and withholds the guarantees to fire so if that is not enough, we've got the victory lap, and e-mail a few months later saying

less than a year. so this is straightforward. pay to play. it's bribery, paid $3 million at the lowest point in his life he testified in the deposition that he was drug addicted and that he's never been to ukraine yet he's paid $3 million to get his father to go to solve his clients problem. does this sound like the scheme you have seen the biden family do? >> i wasn't involved in ukraine but the facts surrounding this are very similar. >> this is the thing. if hunter biden were here, we would be able to ask some questions, but he is not. what's interesting is just yesterday, the federal prison in miami for four months for not

showing up in front of the january 6 committee and i want to point out to everybody the committee was defective under house rules, procedurally because the minority leader did not get to appoint members to the committee. the united states house of representatives oversight and accountability committee is a procedurally perfect committee and we have authority to subpoena hunter biden and he has to show up. he has to answer these questions and tell the world that his father didn't leverage the foreign policy so he would get $3 million. this is no different. and of the american people are not buying this nonsense. we have to restore, we must restore their faith in our institutions and we have to stop this ridiculous where the department of justice persecutes president trump and hides hunter biden behind every corner.

this is not the united states of america that the american people deserve and we have to get our country back on track and with that i will yield. >> did the committee subpoena hunter biden today? >> the chair recognizes pursuant to the order at the request of the minority witnessed the chair declares the committee in recess for ten minutes, then we will come back and may have to recess again for a vote.